The MINI GP Roadster

I hate the OEM hood latches…

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The hood latches had been wonky since I helped my wife ripe the nose off the car a year ago… and remained wonky after the recent fix. I had them both latching (though with huge effort) for a couple of weeks. Then the passenger side latch wouldn’t line up properly no matter what I tried. Hours later, I punted and decided to do something I had been wanting for a year.

I replaced them with something better… Aerocatches. Kenn recently did these, and shared his pics and lessons learned. That helped A TON.

I ordered the “Extreme” version with the steel pins, I trust them more than the aluminum pins, and they accept adjustments with the hammer quite well.

It helps that I have about 1000 ways to drill and cut sheet metal in my shop.

A nibbler is the right tool for this job.

They work very well. I love them. The key to the install is to REALLY take your time. There’s only one spot that really seems to work well, with the pin 3/4″ forward of the plugged hole on the outer strut tower arm. Drill a hole there, insert a sharpie with the point up, and carefully lower the bonnet just until it touches. Use that as your starting mark, drill a small hole, cut 1.5″ off the threaded end of the hood pins, install the a pin to approximately the right height, lower the bonnet and see where you are. Drill another small hole in the “real” correct spot now that you can see what you’re doing. Place the templates, mark, measure and check about a dozen times (you get one shot at this) and carefully cut.

Yes, this is backwards…

I have this sorted chronologically from the beginning, to the most recent posts, so it reads like the story of GPR769. You won't see the most recent posts first, like most blogs. If you'd like to skip ahead to the newest posts, pick the month you want to start at in the Archives index, below.